Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that it has awarded its first annual Frank Wheat Memorial Awards in recognition of outstanding pro bono work at the firm. The awards were given to a Gibson Dunn case team and to an individual attorney who demonstrated leadership and initiative, obtained significant results and served as a source of inspiration to others through their pro bono work.
The 2006 recipients of the Award are:
- Team Award – Denver of counsel Greg Whitehair and associates Monica Loseman and Jonathan Warner. The Denver team was honored for its work on Unis v. Crouch, a Fourth Amendment case that resulted in a precedent-setting opinion that set forth a clear standard of conduct for arresting officers who enter a private residence.
- Individual Award – Washington, D.C. associate Mark Vlasic. Vlasic was recognized for his work as one of five international experts in training a team of judges from the Iraqi High Tribunal on international and criminal law in preparation for the trial of Saddam Hussein.
“We are very proud to honor these individuals for their hard work and dedication,” said Scott Edelman, partner and Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. “Our lawyers achieved great results on a number of pro bono matters, so there were many worthy candidates. It was a difficult decision, but our entire committee felt that the work of Greg, Monica, Jonathan and Mark truly stood out.”
“This is an extraordinary time at Gibson Dunn in terms of our pro bono achievements,” said Managing Partner Ken Doran. “We have a long, proud history of pro bono work and community service, and we are pleased to be able to memorialize our commitment with the establishment of the Frank Wheat Award. In addition to his many contributions as a partner at this firm, Frank was truly a leader in the community. In addition, over the past year, we created a national umbrella committee to better coordinate our pro bono efforts and appointed Scott Edelman to head the committee. Scott’s has done an outstanding job in terms of coordinating our efforts and energizing all of us.”
About the Frank Wheat Memorial Award
The award is named for the late Frank Wheat, a former Gibson Dunn partner who was deeply committed to community service and pro bono work. A recognized leader in corporate transactions, Wheat served as a commissioner of the Securities Exchange Commission and as president of the Los Angeles County Bar. He also founded the Alliance for Children’s Rights and served as founder and trustee of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a leader of the Sierra Club and a board member of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which established a fellowship in his name to train young lawyers in public interest litigation.
About the Team Award Project – Unis v. Crouch
In a dramatic clash between drug enforcement efforts and easily ignored civil liberties, Gibson Dunn attorneys in Colorado (in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union) were able to prove to a federal judge that three government agencies had seriously overstepped their bounds – and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution – prompting a precedent that should serve to better guide multi-department task forces throughout the United States, and generating a record-breaking settlement for a federal Bivens case.
In 2000, several fully geared SWAT officers of the Pueblo, Colorado Police Department, wielding assault weapons and masked in black, stormed the home of Dan and Rosa Unis and their two teenaged sons. Operating under the auspices of a state and federal drug task force and without a warrant, the officers subdued the family at gunpoint, while yelling obscenities and kicking the family’s small dog across the room, and then searched and arrested the teenage sons, detaining them in prison for two days. Only after the search did supervisors seek arrest warrants, which were denied for lack of evidence by the federal prosecutors in Denver. No charges were ever filed by the government.
Gibson Dunn pursued claims against eight individual federal, state and City of Pueblo police officers and the United States DEA Joint Drug Task Force. Gibson Dunn assigned three lawyers to the task, conducting and defending a score of depositions, and briefing the case against four of Colorado’s elite law firms and the Department of Justice.
In spring 2005, Senior District Judge Richard P. Matsch, of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, ruled that the officers’ entry into the home and detention of the brothers violated the family’s Fourth Amendment rights. He found that a competent officer would have known he or she was acting in violation of the Fourth Amendment. This ruling established important precedent regarding the limited scope of law enforcement actions that may be taken without an arrest warrant.
As a result of this ruling, and in light of separate tort claims brought against the United States, the governmental entities (United States, State of Colorado, City of Pueblo) chose to settle the litigation for $230,000 in late August 2005. The ACLU considers this result an outstanding defense of civil liberties, and the Unis family is now able to move forward in support of the boys’ college careers. The Unis brothers are now honors students, one studying veterinary medicine and the other, ethno-botany.
About the Individual Award Project – Iraqi Judges Training
As the rule of law was being reintroduced into Iraq, a number of forward-thinking jurists and attorneys came together with speed, focus and in secrecy, to help prepare key members of the Iraqi judiciary to take up that daunting task. Vlasic served as one of five international experts – including Judge Patricia Wald, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; a German judge; a British judge; and a Moroccan legal scholar – in the training of a team of high-ranking judges from the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) on international law and best practice procedures for criminal trials of gross violations of human rights. The IHT, which is part of the Iraqi Criminal Justice system, was set up to bring to trial those who are accused of crimes against humanity, genocide and other serious crimes in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein. Preliminary hearings took place in 2004, and trials began in late 2005.
Organized and run by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, the training included filmed footage and scenarios designed to demonstrate how international criminal tribunals work and gave the Iraqi judges the opportunity to have direct and detailed conversations with distinguished judges and prosecutors involved in earlier trials, such as the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and in East Timor. Subjects under discussion included: international criminal offences, such as war crimes; the applicability of international criminal law in a civil law jurisdiction; the rights of the accused; and procedural issues, such as the taking of evidence, approaches to questioning, use of experts, writing judgments and sentencing.
About Gibson Dunn’s Pro Bono Program
Gibson Dunn's commitment to community service and pro bono work has always been an important hallmark of the firm's culture.
The firm’s history is rich with examples of Gibson Dunn attorneys serving their communities through diverse pro bono activities. The firm strongly encourages all attorneys to continue this tradition and work on pro bono matters throughout their careers with the firm, and gives full credit for pro bono work in evaluating productivity.
Gibson Dunn and its lawyers have earned recognition around the country for pro bono activities, including:
- 2005 Law Firm of the Year, Public Law Center
- 2005 Guardian of Justice Award, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County
- 2005 Trout Conservation Award, Colorado Trout Unlimited
- 2004 “For the Love of Sight” Award, Foundation Fighting Blindness
- 2004 Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year, DC Bar
- 2004 Rose L. Schiff Commitment to Justice Award, Bet Tzedek Legal Services
- 2003 Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year, Public Counsel